Khamûl wrote:

Does this make Alan Lee's signature just a tiny bit more rare & in demand? ;)

Yeah, I'm not losing sleep, and it definitely isn't worth paying a premium for these signatures (beyond paying RRP for the book). They are a nice-to-have, but I genuinely don't ascribe them any economic value. A ton of these will have been pumped out during the signing events.

Khamûl wrote:

Does this make Alan Lee's signature just a tiny bit more rare & in demand? ;)

When Alan signed my copy at Waterstone's, I told him that I now had the less rare copy of the book, as he had signed it

I did thank both Brian and Alan for signing books, as it is great that they do it.

Quite sad to see that audiobooks these days are being mass-produced for incredibly large conglomerates instead of decent - and usually smaller - companies where you could find out more about the audiobook in question.

I am pretty sure that Samuel West has done an admirable job, he seems to be quite excellent as an audio book narrator but I just read somewhere that Brian actually reads the notes and wanted to cross-check - but there is not a single website with the full information on the audiobook. Or I am simply blind? Any suggestions appreciated

German publishers Der Hörverlag were once the glorious leaders of great readings and radio plays, in cooperation with the best of the best. Nowadays they're just a minor part of Random House...

If I believe correctly in Germany they even were part of the HICP around the 2000s but that's come and gone.

Olwe wrote:

I am pretty sure that Samuel West has done an admirable job, he seems to be quite excellent as an audio book narrator but I just read somewhere that Brian actually reads the notes and wanted to cross-check - but there is not a single website with the full information on the audiobook. Or I am simply blind? Any suggestions appreciated

That is correct, Brian reads the introductions and the footnotes in the book, Samuel West reads Tolkien's text.

Another type of fault noted over on Reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/tolkienbooks/ ... e_fall_of_numenor_deluxe/

At this point I've kind of given up expected anything better tbh. The contents of these publications (going forward) are the most important thing to me & I'm fully resigned to the fact that the books themselves are going to be nothing other than totally average in terms of construction. Design remains subjective & HC have mostly done a good job in this respect. The books themselves (as books), not so much.

This is pig's ear work.
Twice frustrating as the book is very well arranged and presented by B. Sibley. I'm reading it atm and enjoying it a lot.

The book is excellent and Brian has done an incredible job on this. I (tried to) put myself in the mind of a reader who had not read anything other than Rings and The Hobbit and I feel that the introductory matter is really well crafted in such a short space. Brian has managed to include so much information that felt fresh and exciting that I think it will benefit the average reader very much. Hat tipped to him.

The quality of the book is as I expected, pretty rubbish. I have said it elsewhere (Maldon) that HarperCollins has hot a point where quality is secondary to other factors. I have read through Brian's book switching between the hardcover and the Kindle edition and physical book holds no advantage over the eBook. Which is a sad state of affairs to be at. Until HarperCollins get their act together (if they ever do) I will be skipping physical releases from now on unless it is a text I especially want physically (Maldon for instance).

Mine is OK, guess I'm lucky (bought direct from HC)

onthetrail - Thanks for your review of this book my friend. I value your opinion very much, so I look forward to reading this book once I can get my hands on a copy. ?

As for the deluxe edition, it’s sad that it has come to this. I have been buying them just to complete my set (ocd I guess!) but I haven’t been bothering about first edition nonsense for the last few deluxes. I’ve been happy to get them at 1/3 the original price a few months after release. I suppose that’s all they’re worth anyway.